The Department of Public Works and Highways looks to complete the P7.4 billion Panguil Bay Bridge Project, the longest water-spanning bridge in Northern Mindanao, within the first six months next year.
DPWH Senior Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain said the project is now 63 percent complete having already started constructing the bridge’s top slab on both ends in Tangub, Misamis Occidental and Tubod, Lanao del Norte.
Sadain said bored piling works on the seabed for the 32 pylons, a structure providing support for the 3.17-kilometer bridge across Panguil Bay, are all completed and the machinery for bridge construction are in full gear working forward to the main bridge pylons 1 and 2.
“By working round-the-clock and further improve the formulated measures to catch up the delays brought by previous suspension of activities due to COVID-19 pandemic, we will finish the project (and) having first traffic cross the bridge by the first half of 2024,” Sadain said.
He also instructed the contractors Namkwang Engineering & Construction Corporation in joint venture with Kukdong Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. and Gumgwang Construction Co., Ltd. and the engineering consultant Yooshin Engineering Corporation in joint venture with Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants Ltd. and Kyong-Ho Engineering & Architects Co. Ltd. to complete the work at an accelerated pace.
A flagship infrastructure project, the two-way, two-lane Panguil Bay Bridge will shorten travel time between Tangub, Misamis Occidental and Tubod, Lanao del Norte to only 7 minutes.
Present connectivity between Ozamis City/Tangub City and Tubod via roll-on, roll off (roro) vessels is one-an-a-half to two-and-a-half hours, including loading and unloading time. Traversing the distance by land similarly takes as long.
The project is funded by a loan from the Korea Export-Import Bank (Korea Eximbank) and meant to contribute to socio-economic development in Mindanao.
Designing and constructing the Panguil Bay Bridge is part of the DPWH program for integrated and seamless transport systems enhancing inter-island connectivity through short- and long-span bridges.
The program also involves boosting the logistics infrastructure network in Mindanao and develop a transport system with significant impact on tourism, agriculture and the industrial sectors under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Other long-span bridge projects include the 3.9-kilometer Samal Island – Davao Bridge, the 32 kilometer Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge, the 32-kilometer bridge connecting Panay, Guimaras and Negros, and the 3.3 kilometer Cebu-Mactan 4th Bridge.
